More and more fiction writers are joining the growing trend of self publishing. Some have delusions of becoming the next Amanda Hockings (seriously, who wouldn’t want to be her?). Others have realistic expectations and know what it takes to produce an excellent product that will be noticed. These individuals also know that it will take a while to grow their career, just like for most traditional authors. They do their research, and they based their decision to join the ranks because it fits their goals.
With YA, things aren’t as clear cut as for other genres. There are two types of readers who read YA stories: teens and adults. As we know, teens are not adults. When it comes to adoption of eReaders, nothing is truer. Teens haven’t jumped onto the ebook train like adults have. This, though, is slowly changing.
When it comes buying books, again, both groups are very different. Teens have less disposable income and most don’t have credit cards. They tend to borrow books from friends and libraries (although there are a lot of teens who do buy books instead of borrowing them). The majority of the YA books sold are being bought by adults. Some are giving them to their kids as gifts. Many are being read by adults who love YA stories.
So what does this have to do with self publishing? Plenty when it comes to your goals. If you don’t care who reads your books, just as long as someone buys them, then self publishing is a viable option for you. Currently, there are about a dozen self-published YA books that have made it to the top 125 selling children’s chapter books on Amazon. The majority of the books in the top 125 are YA novels.
However, if you hope teens will read your books because you deal with issues that are important to them (think Speak and Thirteen Reasons Why), then you might want to focus on traditional publishing—for now. With traditional publishing, your books have a greater chance of ending up in public and school libraries (unless they are banned, but that’s a discussion for another day). This means they have a greater chance of being read by teens.
What YA genres do well self published? Paranormals and science fiction. This could be because they tend to be part of a series, and this is a great way to develop a fan base. These genres do much better than YA contemporary books. The contemporary novels that did well on the list were all through traditional publishers, most notable the big six.
If you’re interested in self publishing, but you would love teens to read your books, don’t fret. You can take this chance to build your list. That way, you’ll have a solid base when the teens take over as buyers of YA ebooks.
For more info on YA ebooks, check out the following links:
Breakdown of YA book sales according to format
Are teens embracing ebooks?
Teens on ebooks
YA Confidential (scroll down for the ebook question)
Have you figure out what your publication goals are? Have they determined which path you want to take?
(You don’t have to pick only one route. It’s fine to pursue both paths. It just depends on your goals.)
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YARWA is offering the workshop “author branding in YA.” It will be held online May 14 to 25. For more info, check out this link. You don’t have to be a member to register.